Not forgotten: Navy SEAL gets free house

Charity looking to sign up more wounded veterans

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller raised the American flag during a ceremony where he received a home Thursday, courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank, through the Military Warriors Foundation and other supporting agencies. He and his wife April and their ten-month-old son Joe will move in at the end of the month. The home was a foreclosure, and has been remodeled to accommodate Miller's wheelchair.
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller raised the American flag during a ceremony where he received a home Thursday, courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank, through the Military Warriors Foundation and other supporting agencies. He and his wife April and their ten-month-old son Joe will move in at the end of the month. The home was a foreclosure, and has been remodeled to accommodate Miller's wheelchair.
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller raised the American flag during a ceremony where he received a home Thursday, courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank, through the Military Warriors Foundation and other supporting agencies. He and his wife April and their ten-month-old ...
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller gets a tour of his new home, pushed by Ken Eakes of Military Warriors Support Foundation, as they check out the refrigerator. At left is Lt. General Leroy Sisco, founder and CEO of Military Warriors ...
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller, gravely injured in Afghanistan, received a home Thursday, courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank, through the Military Warriors Foundation and other supporting agencies. He and his wife April and their ten-month-old son Joe will move in ...
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller, left, receives a gift of Red Bull from Lt. Gen. Leroy Sisco, CEO of Military Warriors Support Foundation, at a ceremony presenting a new home to Miller and his family. At right is Tyler Smith, ...
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller gets a push through his new bedroom, from Lt. Gen. Leroy Sisco, founder and CEO of Military Warriors Support Foundation. At left is Miller's wife April Miller.
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

Retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller raised the American flag at his new home in El Cajon Thursday after a ceremony presenting it to him and his family courtesy of Wells Fargo Bank, through the Military Warriors Foundation and other supporting ...
— Peggy Peattie / U-T San Diego

From his wheelchair, retired Navy SEAL Elliott Miller raised the American flag at his new house Thursday. His house — all his and his wife’s — mortgage-free.

It lets him know, he said, that the United States remembers his sacrifice.

Miller and his wife, April, received a free home in El Cajon thanks to a partnership between Wells Fargo and Military Warriors Support Foundation, a Texas-based charity that takes foreclosed houses and gives them to veterans wounded in combat.

The injured SEAL was a particularly tough case; it took a year to find a house that could accommodate his wheelchair. Miller was gravely wounded in 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq, when his sniper position was hit by grenade, then he got caught in the blast of an improvised bomb.

He lost part of a leg. Brain injury claimed his ability to speak. Now he communicates by typing, quickly with one thumb, on an iPad, which then voices his words.

“It just means the world to me. It gives me and my family a sense of security, secure in the knowledge that I was not forgotten,” Miller, 34, said Thursday. “My family is safe in secure housing forever, a home that we will not have to think about selling and moving every two to three years.”

More than 180 houses have been delivered to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans over the past two years, including 44 in California, foundation officials said. Banks transfer the deed to the charity, which holds it for three years. After demonstrating good stewardship, the veteran receives the property free and clear.

Wells Fargo has donated 10 houses for veterans since 2009. Military Warriors Support Foundation also works with Bank of America, Chase and GMAC.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Leroy Sisco, who founded the charity in 2007, said seriously wounded veterans often don’t have the fiscal wherewithal to buy a home.

“They get their retirement pay, but some of them just don’t have the finances to live,” said Sisco, in El Cajon Thursday to hand the Millers a ceremonial key.

“If we can take that worry and pain off the hero, because they are wounded and can’t get a job, we want to make sure that’s a part they don’t have to worry about.”

The Millers, who had been living in military housing, tried to buy on their own. But the San Diego real estate market made it impossible, the retired SEAL said.

Now they have what can only be described as quite a spread.

The two-bedroom hillside house overlooking El Cajon was constructed 64 years ago, according to Wells Fargo property records. It was last sold in 2004 for $565,000.